Bye-bye, ties

Tie association calls it quits as fewer men buy neckwear

June 05, 2008|By The Wall Street Journal

Many American men stopped wearing neckties years ago. Now, even tie guys are giving up on them.

After 60 years, the Men's Dress Furnishings Association, the trade group that represents American tie makers, is expected to shut down Thursday. Association members now number just 25, down from 120 during the 1980s power-tie era.

Some U.S. tie companies have been consolidating while others have closed due to overseas competition. And men just aren't wearing ties.

Some members of the neckwear association sensed the trend two years ago when, at the group's annual luncheon in New York, a number of people turned up tieless.

Marty Staff, chief executive of men's clothing company JA Apparel Corp., which has a big neckwear business, was one of them.

"Power is being able to dress the way you want," Staff said. Although the company he heads owns the Joseph Abboud label, and he himself enjoys ties, "I just don't like when [a tie] becomes obligatory."

Staff isn't alone. A new generation of menswear manufacturers and fashion designers has grown up seeing ties as optional. While they design and produce ties, many are agnostic about wearing them.

Fashion designer Tom Ford has mixed feelings about the tie. On a media tour for his new luxury menswear line last year, Ford extolled his sumptuous, Italian-made $195 silk ties.

The designer, dressed in a dark suit and dress shirt, was nevertheless standing there with no tie.

"It was giving me a migraine," he explained after taking his tie off earlier in the day. "You can wear a tailored suit without a tie and look sexy too. You don't need the tie."

TIE TALLY

6 Percentage of men who wore ties to work every day in 2007

40 U.S. market share for American-made ties, down from 75 percent in 1995

$677 Millions in U.S. tie sales in the 12 months ending March 31, down from their peak of $1.3 billion in 1995